214 COOT. 



should have been sent, to observe and perpetuate the infinite 

 variety of natural productions, many of which are entirely un- 

 known to the community of science, which that extensive tour 

 must have revealed ! 



The Coot leaves us in November, for the southward. 



The foregoing was prepared for the press, when the author, 

 in one of his shooting excursions on the Delaware, had the good 

 fortune to kill a full plumaged female Coot. This was on the 

 twentieth of April. It was swimming at the edge of a cripple 

 or thicket of alder bushes, busily engaged in picking something 

 from the surface of the water, and while thus employed it turn- 

 ed frequently. The membrane on its forehead was very small, 

 and edged on the fore part with gamboge. Its eggs were of the 

 size of partridge shot. And on the thirteenth of May, another 

 fine female specimen was presented to him, which agreed with 

 the above, with the exception of the membrane on the forehead 

 being nearly as large and prominent as that of the male. From 

 the circumstance of the eggs of all these birds being very small, 

 it is probable that the Coots do not breed until July. 



